The version 5.0 is well-tested and stable. However, no more development is planned because now the same functionality is available in GNU Emacs 27 by tab-switcher that can be used for the same purpose (switching the named persistent window configurations) even without using the tab-bar.

The command wincows displays a list of previously created window configurations with names of their buffers separated by comma. You can switch to a window configuration selected from this list.

In this list of window configurations so you can also delete them by marking a window configuration with d and deleting with x. The first column shows D for for a window configuration you have marked for deletion. Type ? after invocation to get help on commands available. Type q to remove the list of window configurations from the display.

To create a new window configuration, run wincows and start creating new windows without selecting an existing window configuration (you can leave the current list with q for clarity.)

Clone this repository, add its path to load-path with e.g.:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/lisp/emacs-wincows")
(require 'wincows)

Running wincows displays a list of window configurations. Each line describes one window configuration and corresponding buffer names. Letters do not insert themselves; instead, they are commands:

(define-key global-map       "\e\t"    'wincows)
(define-key wincows-mode-map "\e\t"    'wincows-select)
(define-key wincows-mode-map "\t"      'wincows-next-line)
(define-key wincows-mode-map [backtab] 'wincows-prev-line)

Note that for convenience the same key M-TAB is used both for showing the list initially, and for selecting an item from the list (after navigating to it using the TAB key).

Or if your window manager intercepts the M-TAB key, then you can use the M-` key to show the list, and the ` key for navigation, when ` is located near TAB on your keyboard. Here is a sample configuration with different keys located near TAB. Some of them might work for your keyboard:

(when (require 'wincows nil t)
  (define-key global-map [(meta  ?\xa7)] 'wincows)
  (define-key global-map [(meta ?\x8a7)] 'wincows)
  (define-key global-map [(meta     ?`)] 'wincows)
  (define-key global-map [(super    ?`)] 'wincows)
  (eval-after-load "wincows"
    '(progn
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(meta  ?\xa7)] 'wincows-select)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(meta ?\x8a7)] 'wincows-select)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(meta     ?`)] 'wincows-select)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(super    ?`)] 'wincows-select)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [( ?\xa7)] 'wincows-next-line)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(?\x8a7)] 'wincows-next-line)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(    ?`)] 'wincows-next-line)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [( ?\xbd)] 'wincows-prev-line)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(?\x8bd)] 'wincows-prev-line)
       (define-key wincows-mode-map [(    ?~)] 'wincows-prev-line))))

Window configurations are saved and restored automatically in desktop-save-mode.